An interesting piece of news for UK readers, it may soon be legal to rip your CD collection to MP3. As it currently stands, CD ripping, or format shifting as it's more properly known, is illegal in the UK. This is often a surprise to many people as this fact is not widely known.

The Government is currently considering the legal position on format shifting. Also under review is the Digital Economy Act. The DEA was put in place to force ISPs to block file sharing websites and cut off the internet connection of those who share copyright material. The website blocking was made possible by a court order, the first example was a ruling against BT. The proposals being considered could see the DEA be revoked.